Dave Hatfield

I am a firm believer that it isn't the cheese that makes you put on weight. I think its the bread/crackers/ ?? and wine that one eats/drinks with it. So, cut out the bread, etc. Eat the cheese. And, yes, drink the wine. (Life has to continue to be worth living; doesn't it?)

Dumb question from another dumb old guy. Have you added the salt? That's usually the problem when ours starts not cleaning.

Wow! I'm impressed and very grateful. I'll be trying all of these as soon as I can find the agar agar here in France. Many many thanks.

I was given an iSi creamer for my birthday so now I can make foams; or at least I think I can. But I'm having a hard time finding many recipes. So far I've done a black berry essence & cream foam (pretty good), a Rum cream foam over baked peaches (I used too much rum, but Ok otherwise) and a cooking apple & cream foam (which was good, but a bit bland) BUT I've sort of run out of ideas. I've tried searching the forums, recipe Gullet and my cook books. Not much there except the chapter by Adrian in "The Cook's Book" HELP! edited to correct typo.

I googled and found an amazing review by Patricia Wells, although it is 2 decades old - I'm hoping It's still as wonderful as she makes it sound. Just what we would love to try. Thank youj, cigalechanta. I checked out the compendia, and there were some helpful insights there. Thanks, John! The map is AMAZING! Someone had way too much time on his hands! What an accomplishment. Thank you for the heads up on that, Dave. Eileen ← Thanks for the kind words. Two places, one in & the other near Avignon added today. Please, please report on your restaurant experiences. That way I can add to the map for everyone to share. Dave PS: Can't resist saying that we're going to Le Vieux Pont in Belcastel tonight for dinner. Lucky us!

Last week two friends & I visited three very different restaurants in the Southern Cantal; near Calivinet. (See interactive map, Calvinet marker for the exact location) Each was good in its own way showing the diversity of country French restaurants. Go here on my blog for a full report. Or visit this beautiful rural part of France.

Very quiet here, I can't believe that nobody is eating cheese during their vacation. Anyway, I stumbled upon a new cheese (to me that is) today. Its called Domaine de Bresse. Its a blue and absolutely delicious. I've never seen it before, but the guy who sold it to me is very good & only seems to stock real cheeses. In fact the cheese tastes like I remember a good Blue de Bresse tasting before they went mass production and spoiled it. A successor? Or maybe a throwback? Does anybody know anything about this? Also picked up a raw milk fresh cow's cheese with fine herbs. Sort of Boursin on steroids. And 4 little hard cow's milk rounds (except that one was heart shaped). They're very sharp and very good. USA vs. England this Saturday in World Cup Rugby. Cheers them on!

Try the map. CLICK CLICK!

Thanks Dave.....great idea. ← Thanks. Try here Not a million miles away from Castres. You won't be sorry. On the map as well!!

Try the map. Click Click! Its a big area so you need to look more specifically.

We were very pleased with the lunch we had yesterday at Les Secrets Gourmands in Realmont which is about 15 KM South of Albi. The restaurant is not impressive from the frond road entrance, but once inside the dining rooms are very nice indeed. As it was a beautiful day we chose to eat on the shaded terrace at the rear. Very quiet, cool and relaxing. Sunday lunch was a set menu at 28 Euros. Starters offered were: Fois Gras done three ways, a casserole of escargots or a medly of marinated sardines, salmon & lotte. The amuse was a little pot of concentrated tomato with garlic cream on top & a crunchy biscuit. Linda had the fois gras which she pronounced delicious. I had the fish ; excellent with a cold vegetable compote & a bit of salad with walnut oil vinaigrette. The snails passing by to other tables looked good as well. Plat choices were: canette breasts, mile- mi of three fishes or beef filet. Linda had the fish which was served with the veggie compote; she loved it. My fillet was perfectly cooked & served over a bed of the best cous-cous I've ever had. We then had a choice of either desserts or cheese. She had the desserts. There were 5 of them prettily arranged on a long plate. Linda's opinion was the three were of the scale for goodness while the other 2 were merely marvelous. Her favorite was the apricot sorbet. My cheese was great, all local, all in great shape. There was a nice pot of fig jam to go with them. The wine list concentrated upon wines from the area and was very fairly priced with many choices in the 20 Euro area. We had a Cotes de Russillon All in all a nice meal in a nice location. Service was friendly & professional throughout. If you're in that area give it a try. Edited to add phone number: 05 63 79 07 69

John, I for one appreciate the updates. I'm busy updating the restaurant map to reflect this compendia, but its slow going. Still. the map is starting to look a bit more complete. ← To you Dave, and all who contribute, our hearty thanks.John and Phyllis PS Double salaries all. ← Is the check in the mail? I work for food vouchers as well just in case Euros are a problem. Spring, of course!

John, I for one appreciate the updates. I'm busy updating the restaurant map to reflect this compendia, but its slow going. Still. the map is starting to look a bit more complete.

Hey guys & Girls we seem to have a lots of fuss for a simple dish. Why not just grill the ribs with a modicum of Salt & pepper plus some fresh rubbed rosemary. Add some chopped garlic if you like, but keep it down. Keep the grilling temperature down so you don't cook too fast, just enough to get a nice crisp crust. I like lamb and feel strongly that it doesn't need much help to be wonderful. Too much rub/marinade/sauce just covers up the real lamb flavour IMHO.

Where are all the San Franciscans? Ceviche has been an institution in the city as long as I can remember. All the best seafood restaurants have always served it. I don't think anyone in SF would claim that it originated there, but if asked most would ascribe the origin as Italian. Come on city residents lets hear from you.

Not to be awkward or anything as I too love the charcuterie from both Spain and Italy, but.... Always remember that charcuterie is a French word!

No mystery. Read the introduction on the left side of the map. The "ocean" entries are those that I couldn't pin down to a specific location. Restaurants with rooms for instance shows places literally all over the map. Enjoy. I expect you to start contributing from the far South in, What? 17 days?

I was going to do a bit more work on this, but John's let the cat out of the bag so I'd better go ahead and post. Click here for a map showing restaurants outside of Paris. These have mostly been posted on eGullet over the past months. Rather than try to sort out just the restaurant names & locations I have linked to the thread about restaurants in the marked location. In most cases there will be more than one restaurant and many times more than one opinion about it/them. The exception is the cluster down in the South West. This is a partial list of restaurants near where we live. Most of these are the standard French country type of place although a few are special. I'll try to keep this up to date and encourage everyone to send in restaurant reports from around the country. Two tips: 1) Zoom in to get to more exact locations on the map. 2) There are two maps for restaurants outside Paris. Click on both. (this is due to a technical glitch which I haven't sorted out yet.) Comments & criticisms solicited. Please post comments, suggestions, etc., about the maps here.

I don't think it was as cheap as 100 Euros, but we love our Rosieres oven. It does everything ,conventional ,convection you name it. Its the standard 60cm width and is a built in type. It even has self cleaning. If you look around you may find a shop (there seems to be a small chain of them) selling "fin de serie" appliances. End of range stuff. Their prices are low low and they have name as well as no name brands. We bought a 4 burner gas cooker from them recently for our gite & paid less than 150 Euros.

Teaser. Its been a long time, but I'm guessing The Prado?

This is going to be a great week. I love Madrid and lived there for two years many years ago. (Franco era) I'm very much looking forward to your impressions and your food both what you cook & what you eat in restaurants. A little Tosca hopping perhaps? Picados?

We do pizza on the grill fairly often (we use a gas grill, but traditional works just as well if you can get the heat even enough.) We call it do it yourself pizza. We make a regular pizza dough then divide it into small balls. (about 6-8 inches in diameter when rolled out thinly.) I will have made a fresh tomato sauce previously so its ready to use. All of the vegetables are pre- cooked (my wife does a roast with eggplant, tomato, onion, garlic, sweet pepper & .... whatever is in season.), cheeses either shredded or cut into small chunks, meats cooked if needed. Anchovies & whatever else you like on your pizza cut up & ready. Each guest gets a dough ball to roll out. The rolled dough goes onto a very hot BBQ. It only takes a minute or so to cook. Then the pizza is lifted with tongs, flipped over onto a plate and the guest loads on their choice of topping. Back onto the grill just long enough to crisp up the other side & melt the cheese. One secret is to not load up the pizza with too much topping. We normally finish with a pizza topped only with a garlic butter & fresh rosemary topping. Yummy! Always a hit. Turns grown ups into children.

I'd have thought my opinion on French coffee was crystal clear... However: - All coffees at Verlet (rue Saint-Honoré, near Palais-Royal) are excellent. - La Grande Epicerie du Bon Marché has a lightly roasted Mexican Liquidambar maragogype that is very good. - Brûleries have good stuff and some restaurants really care about coffee. But IMO they are by no means the majority. ← Ptipois - You were crystal clear. My comment was a somewhat feeble attempt at American humor. Must be losing my touch. Guess I've drunk too much French coffee. Or, maybe, even worse I drank too much American coffee before I emigrated. Who knows, but IMHO American coffee makes French look good.

Why don't you tell us how you really feel about French coffee. Don't hold back this time!

Don't live in 75, but down here in the wilds I can get fresh milk in any of the big supermarkets (Leclerc, Intermarche, HyperU). Can also get raw milk in them usually, but not always. Can't believe there would be a problem in gay Parie? Am I missing something?